Friday, 16 December 2011

Zagranica Seminar Development and Democracy in EU External Policy

During the seminar, held on 17th November in Warsaw, organized jointly by the Zagranica Group, Institute of Public Affairs and the Working Group EPAN (Enlargement, Pre-Accession and Neighbourhood) of the European NGO confederation CONCORD, the impact of the EU Neighbourhood Policy and Community Development Policy was discussed. The panelists analyzed the main trends in European Union policy that link development cooperation, the support of democracy and the consequences of the so-called Arab Spring for EU policy in relations with neighboring countries, as well as changes that should be implemented to the Neighbourhood Policy to foster peaceful democratic change.

The first part of the seminar was dedicated to democracy support and development cooperation in EU policy. Paweł Baginski from the Stefan Batory Foundation, John Hofmokl from the chancellery of the Prime Minister and Elena Fanetti from the European Centre for Development Policy Management discussed both policies in the context of the so-called Arab Spring and two documents released this year: Agenda for Change for the Development Policy and Civil Society Neighbourhood Facility for the Neighbourhood Policy. Alexandra Nerisanu from the European Commision and Monika Hellmeyer from the London School of Economics discussed tools of development policy and among them the case of the EU Civil Society Facility.

During the second part of the seminar the issue of "European Endowment for Democracy" was tackled. Jacek Kucharczyk from the Institute of Public Affairs, Susan Kierzkowska from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Pirkka Tapiola from the European External Action Service discussed conditions that should be fulfilled by the European Endowment for Democracy.

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